In May 2013 the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (SFOPH) commissioned the Department of Political Science (IPZ) to elaborate the “Study of the Swiss Addiction Policy: Advocacy Coalitions in the Swiss Alcohol, Tobacco and Drug Policy”. The main objective of the study is the elaboration of a systematic overview of the field of addiction policy (illegal drugs, alcohol, tobacco and non-substance-related addictions). Therefore, the set of relevant actors, their policy beliefs as well as the political dynamics in the field of addiction policy will be analyzed in a systematic manner. For this purpose, the study is divided into three parts. First, the most relevant decision-making processes on the federal level in the last ten years will be the object of a qualitative analysis. Second, a survey with carefully chosen informants (experts) will give an overview of the actors in the Swiss addiction policy as well as their positions. Third, in order to shed light on the situation on the cantonal level, a standardized survey with all 26 cantonal delegates for addiction will be conducted.
1. BACKGROUND The current constitution of BiH is based on Annex IV of the Dayton Peace Agreement and does not provide an adequate framework for a prosperous future of BiH. Switzerland is strongly supporting the process of constitutional reforms in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2005. The support was implemented in the frame of programs called “Platform Bosnia and Herzegovina: Contribution to Constitutional Changes”. Till now, three phases were implemented. The previous phases were implemented with the vision of citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina aware of the need for and supportive to the process of constitutional reform as one of the principal conditions for the development of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Programs were tailored to achieve sensibility over constitutional issues of wider public, especially local communities and to support local actors in the process of constitutional changes. The previous phase (2008-2010) included some new and crucial features that should have enhanced the overall impact and increased ownership over the constitutional development process: collaboration with upper level of government/institutions, strengthening of institutional capacities (state building), demand driven activities and usage of regional/inter-municipal level through already existing structure-Entities Associations of Municipalities and Cities. Previous phases were able to build trust between BiH and Switzerland which resulted in the wish for continuation of the Swiss support. The fourth phase will build upon results and the experiences of past projects. Goals of the previous phases will be basically kept, but additional objectives regarding capacity building of the different institutional structures and democratization have been added, as Bosnia’s post-conflict ethnic politics will not disappear, even when there is agreement on constitutional reform. 2. OBJECTIVES (project component: Zentrum für Demokratie Aarau) A) Enhancing sustainable democratization and bridging the divide between the youth in BiH along ethnic and entity lines through capacity building of prospective postgraduate students in the domains of democratization, human rights and constitutional reform. The emphasis is on the development of potential future decision makers’ capability to critically analyse ways of designing mutual comprehension in a multicultural society. • Organization of a winter school in BiH and a summer school in Switzerland for 30-50 university students with particular emphasis on the institutional design for divided societies: electoral system, federalism, direct democracy, quotas and representation. Deepened skills will be offered both through theoretical background, empirical examples of other countries and practical experience provided by decision makers and opinion leaders. • Networking between BiH universities, both between Swiss and BiH universities and institutions (like ZDA, University of Zürich, NADEL) and possibility of exchange among students (both from within BiH and from Switzerland and other countries) strengthened. B) Capacity building of BiH parliamentary members and other politically relevant stakeholders is built up in order to help to overcome some of egregious flaws in BiH constitution. By addressing the constitution’s shortcomings, power-sharing and consensus at different levels (municipal, cantonal, entity) should be facilitated and institutional processes and decision making strengthened. This should also provide a basis for building a political consensus, culture of dialogue and exchange of experiences between Swiss, international and BiH experts. • Specific and joint workshops/expertise for BiH MPs are organized in order to build a base for strategic development in the context of constitutional changes.
Eine angemessene Vertretung der Sprachgemeinschaften in der schweizerischen Bundesverwaltung gilt im politischen Diskurs als wichtiger Ausdruck der schweizerischen Mehrsprachigkeit. Verschiedene Gesetzesgrundlagen und Weisungen sind erlassen worden, um dieses Ziel zu erreichen. Es stellen sich jedoch Fragen bezüglich der Umsetzung und Wirkung dieser Massnahmen im Spannungsfeld zwischen beruflichen Qualifikationen und Sprachkenntnissen von StellenbewerberInnen sowie hinsichtlich der sprachregionalen Dynamiken des Arbeitsmarktes für Verwaltungsmitarbeitende. Statistiken zum Anteil der Bundesangestellten nach Erstsprachen verweisen auf ein Ungleichgewicht der Vertretung von Sprachminderheiten in gewissen Positionen und Ämtern. Ziel dieses Projektes ist es, sich eingehend mit diesem Phänomen auseinanderzusetzen und die Komplexität der Mechanismen und Prozesse zu verstehen, die den Zugang der sprachlichen Minderheiten zu gewissen Positionen in der Bundesverwaltung erleichtern oder erschweren. Der Schwerpunkt liegt auf dem Personalrekrutierungsprozess, der als Schlüsselinstrument der Selektion und des Zugangs zur Anstellung verstanden wird. Das Projekt wird in Zusammenarbeit mit dem wissenschaftlichen Kompetenzzentrum für Mehrsprachigkeit der Universität Fribourg durchgeführt.
Dieses Gutachten erörtert mögliche Konsequenzen einer Annahme der Volksinitiative „Für die Stärkung der Volksrechte in der Aussenpolitik (Staatsverträge vors Volk!)“, welche im Jahre 2009 eingereicht wurde. Konkret werden folgende vier Fragen beantwortet: Das Gutachten soll folgende vier Fragen beantworten: 1. Welches sind die heute bestehenden Mitsprachemöglichkeiten von Volk und Ständen beim Abschluss von Staatsverträgen? Wie wurden die bestehenden direktdemokratischen Instrumente bisher genutzt und mit welchem Ergebnis? 2. In welchem Verhältnis stehen die in der Initiative vorgesehenen neuen Mitsprachemöglichkeiten zu den bereits bestehenden? Mit wie vielen zusätzlichen Abstimmungen ist zu rechnen? 3. Wie wirkt sich die Durchführung von zusätzlichen Abstimmungen auf die Stimmbürgerinnen und Stimmbürger aus? Führt eine Erhöhung der Anzahl Abstimmungen zu Abstimmungsmüdigkeit und somit zu einer sinkenden Stimmbeteiligung? Führen zusätzliche Abstimmungen zu einer Überforderung der Stimmbürgerinnen und Stimmbürger bei der Meinungsbildung und somit zu einer verminderten Qualität des Stimmentscheids? 4. Welcher Mehraufwand entsteht durch die Erhöhung der Anzahl Abstimmungen? Welche zusätzlichen administrativen Kosten entstehen für die Behörden? Wie wirken sich Mehrabstimmungen auf die Bereitschaft von Medien und politischen Parteien aus, sich in der öffentlichen Debatte zu engagieren? Die Resultate des Gutachtens sind publiziert worden (siehe Weblinks unten).
This projects funds an institutional partnership between the Institute of Political Science at the University of Zurich, and the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. The objective of the institutional partnership is to better understand, explain and address problems of governance and administration of megacities outside the OECD context. China is a privileged region to study this topic, as it hosts not less than three of the world’s twenty two megacities, i.e. urban regions with a population of at least 10 million. The activities include two three-day workshops, held in Zurich (in August 2011) and in Beijing (in August 2012), as well as a one month visit of a Chinese faculty member in Zurich (in May 2013). The immediate output of the partnership will be the publication of a joint book on the problems and prospects of effective megacity governance in Europe and China. Furthermore, we expect the institutional partnership to provide the opportunity for further cooperation in three fields, namely (1) the formulation of a joint research project on metropolitan transformations in China, (2) the setting up of a joint summer school on the topic of governance and administration of megacities, as well as (3) further faculty and staff exchange in the respective programmes of continuing education. The applicants, Proff. Dong Lisheng and Daniel Kübler, first met in 2003, in the framework of an international collaborative project supported by the French CNRS. They have maintained contact, and met several times since then. The institutional partnership suggested here would give the opportunity to further strengthen and deepen the dialogue between their respective research groups, and set the base for further collaboration in the future.
The Department of Political Science (IPZ) and the Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research (IPMZ), both part of the University of Zurich, have evaluated the “Communication strategy for the prevention of seasonal flu 2008-2012” (“Kommunikationsstrategie zur Prävention der saisonalen Grippe 2008-2012”) on behalf of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH). This communication strategy has two threads. On the one hand, it seeks to directly encourage the end addressees to get vaccinated (for their own protection and that of others) via the use of educational material such as posters and brochures. On the other hand, it seeks to indirectly influence these end addressees through message multipliers (such as doctors and the mass media). The question of whether this communication strategy reached its intended end addressees and multipliers is of central importance to the evaluation. The findings indicate that the communication strategy has (so far) failed to achieve its objectives concerning the end addressees: a ten-year comparison shows a considerable fall in uptake among the at-risk groups who were encouraged to get themselves vaccinated for their own protection. Also, uptake among medical and health-care professionals as well as among individuals in close contact with the at-risk groups is insufficient to ensure the protection of others. In contrast, most of the multiplier-related objectives were achieved. On the basis of these findings, the evaluation formulates recommendations for the design of a follow-up strategy starting as from 2012/13.
In the last two decades, Swiss municipalities have been increasingly under strain and subject of various reforms (see for an overview: Ladner (2011b, 2001); Ladner and Steiner (2003); Kübler and Ladner (2003)). The reorganisation of the municipal administrations often inspiried by New Public Managment, the intergovernmental reallocation of tasks and financial resources, the creation of network-like organizations for service provision and, last but not least, municipal mergers are key elements of recent reform activities. In general, the reforms aim at preserving the important role of local governments in the Swiss political system. More precisely, they are often implemented in order to enhance the capacity to act at the local level and to increase the efficiency of policy outputs (Kübler and Ladner, 2003, 151). However, the impact of these “efficiency-driven reforms” on structures and processes of local democracy are hardly analyzed ((Ladner, 2011b, 212). The purpose of the project is to shed light on the democratic effects of the laft wave of local government reforms. In a first step we analyze the effect of municipal mergers on political partizipation.
The state chancellery of the canton of Argovia increasingly has the problem to animate people to participate in political processes. Based on this, the study systematically describes the current challenges of government communication in the canton of Argovia and formulates recommandations. The study focusses on the 1) constitutional borders of state communication; 2) political communication in an inter-cantonal and inter-national comparison; 3) opinion making of the people and the role of political communication.
This project aims at embedding urban design into the very processes of its generation, thereby harnessing the capacity to design that is ultimately framed by policy-making, strategic spatial planning and decision-making, and by the work processes in implementation. Several scientific disciplines have contributed to understanding of these local processes. In this project, we draw from four fields of knowledge: •Urban Design and Architecture (Documenting urban events) •Governance of urban transformation (Analysis of municipal policies) •Planning and decision-making (Tracing and mapping of planning strategies) •Studies of Work (Implementation of projects) We argue that city regions are best understood by observing their change over time with a focus on external shocks; thus, urban design activity should be analysed with respect to ‘events’ that generate far from equilibrium, ‘crisis’ situations, nudge everyday practices away from their standard responses, call for an explicit formulation of design strategies, and require their implementation into built environment. This is what we define as ‘urban events’ - they are the starting point of this research project. Our perspective on urban quality implies to attend to the multiple relations (of people, building, systems, processes, institutions) that make, shape and perform the city. The proposed project explores local solutions with regard to urban quality against the background of on ruptures that are induced by major changes in transportation connectivity and that trigger activities to conserve, secure or generate new urban qualities. More precisely, we endeavour to unveil the dynamics that influence the promotion - or hampering - of urban quality in development projects at the municipal level. Ultimately, the goal of the project is to understand the production of urban textures, and tracing the manifold transformations between both urban design and various (decision-making) processes in the field of policy-making, spatial planning and administrative work, and between those sequences respectively. The project is structured: A. Three disciplinary tracks (political science, urban geography and urban sociology): the analysis of three translations/transformations of which we expect that they are coupled in complex ways, taking place synchronically and diachronically, by means of both feed forward and feed back loops; B. An interdisciplinary approach: in four design studios, which are run by invited architects and followed by researcher involved in the track of the project. Studio participants will get retrospective and prospective insight in changes in the urban fabric that then can be linked to transportation connectivity. The aim of the design studio is not to the content of this study, but to generate new research questions, to reorganise research procedures, or to reconsider taken for granted knowledge.
This project investigates changes of lay participation in the context of the professionalization of management structures in the Swiss public school. In most Swiss cantons, professional school boards with operative power were introduced with the project of partial autonomy (Teilautonomisierung) of schools. This raises the question what happens with the local lay commissions that were strategically leading the public school in many cantons up to now. Additionally, school management has changed because parental boards were introduced in many places. The goal of the project is to clarify the relation of professionalization and lay participation concerning both participation forms (local lay commissions and parental boards). First, we will make qualitative case studies in four cantons to investigate changes in lay participation due to the reform of school governance. Second, we will systematically investigate the interaction of school management, school commissions, parental boards, and the local council in all 26 cantons in order to check whether the results from the qualitative case studies are generalisable for Switzerland as such.